Draco the Merman's unfortunate Events!
by DarkRose2009
Summary: Draco's blood might not be as pure as he thought before and Hermione is determined to find out what he is, in their graduating year at Hogwarts post-war.
1. Sorry, I might be a what?

Summary : Draco's blood might not be as pure as he thought before and Hermione is determined to find out what he is, in their graduating year at Hogwarts post-war.

Disclaimer : I don't own the characters, and it's inspired by the anime : Mermaid, Pichi, Pichi! Not really a cross-over. And please disregard HP's epilogue in book 7. So it means, Hermione is still single, and Draco isn't married to Astoria Greengrass.

**Summer 1998 : Malfoy Manor**

It was summer 1998, when Harry Potter defeated Lord Voldemort, and the Wizarding world was all well and good. But for Draco Malfoy, this was a new beginning. Particularly since, on a fine June morning, his birthday, he was called down to Breakfast by Lucius and Narcissa.

"Draco dear, what did you decide to do about your education?" Narcissa was first to ask him.

"Well, I want to go back to Hogwarts and graduate and then I want to start working in the Ministry like Father, maybe."

"Sounds like a plan, Son." said Lucius, approving of his ideas about going back to Hogwarts.

"If there isn't anything you want to talk about, I'll be back in the gardens."

"Actually, yes we do have something to tell you, Son."

"What is it, Mother, Father?" Although both loved their only son, because they were in an aristocratic family, Draco was only allowed to call them formally. And not a simple "Mum" or "Dad", like in normal families.

"Son, we don't know how to tell you this." Lucius started.

"But please don't be upset about it."

"Just get out with it, Mother, Father! I'm dying to know!"

"Well Son, er, in the Malfoy family, we have er, some Merpeople's blood in us."

"WHAT? You're joking, right?" Draco asked them after getting the news.

"No, unfortunately, we're not. We are telling you the truth."

"And, you think, I am a Merman?"

"You might be, you might not be."

"We've hid this during the war because we were afraid the Dark Lord might have done something to you, because of this impurity in your blood." Lucius explained to him.

"You could have told me sooner, you know." said Draco, a bit sourly because he still couldn't quite believe it.

"Yes, but we wanted to wait until your 18th birthday, dear."

"And why?"

"Because we thought this would be the proper time for you to know it."

"And because we thought you wouldn't be a Merman before that." Lucius added.

"So, as a birthday present?" said Draco sarcastically.

"No, because we thought you wouldn't take it well, so we waited, and waited, until your 18th birthday, to tell you."

"And you thought I'd take it better if I was an adult?"

"Yes, but obviously you're not taking it any better."

"No. Because I just can't believe you've kept it secret from me for so long, 18 years! What were you thinking when you didn't want to tell me about it?"

"Because you were too immature to know about it." Narcissa answered.

"Is there anything else I should know about myself?"

"Yes, you will have to find your Mate."

"My what?"

"Mate, Dear."

"And what's a Mate?"

"Someone who is your other half, Dear."

"Before going any further, why do you think I might be a Merman?"

"Because of your increased need of water. We've noticed you drank more water than usual these days, Son." Lucius said simply.

"But that doesn't mean I am a Merman, does it?"

"We'll just have to wait and see. In the next couple of days, if I'm right about it, you will need more water than us, and might even grow a fish tail in the near future." Narcissa chuckled at the thought. Draco wasn't none too happy to hear about it.

"WHAT? WHY ME?" Draco threw his hands in the air in exasperation.

"We don't know why the Fates chose you, so stop asking 'why me', Son."

And this birthday of his turned his peaceful life as a Pure-blood wizard upside down. "_I might be a damned Merman! And I have a Mate! Who the hell is she or he?_ _And I might even grow a tail!_" He complained about his life interiorly, after having a talk with his parents.

The next days following his finding out that he might be a Merman, he was indeed showing the Symptoms for it. He needed more water than the average human. Sometimes, he would just put his fingers in a glass full of water. Narcissa arched an eyebrow at that.

"Draco, I've got some House-Elves to prepare a bath for you, it might be better than sticking your fingers in a glass of water."

"Thank you, Mother." And sure enough, as soon as he dipped his body in the bathtub, he grew a golden fish tail.

"Oh Merlin! How I am going to deal with this at Hogwarts?"

"You can just stay at home, Draco, no need to go to back to School." His Mother suggested.

"No, I want to finish my education on time. And I want to graduate from School. And I'll be dealing with this at home or at Hogwarts, any way."

"Just mind you, don't let anyone else see you like this."

"Why?"

"Do you want Potter and other students to make fun of you because of that?"

"No, you're right Mother. I shouldn't let anyone see me with a fish tail at School."

The next couple of months before Hogwarts, Draco was thinking about how he should keep it a secret from other students at school, and more importantly, how he should keep this secret from Saint Potter and co, his arch-rivals. "_They would certainly laugh at me if they knew about this!_" Although the Golden trio saved his life more than once, they were nowhere near his friends. But little did they know Draco's dirty little secret was going to bring them together.

so, how was it? tell me by commenting! I know I'm not good with dialogues!


	2. First Sign

The last month before Hogwarts, Draco's Mother thought it necessary to meet up with Hogwarts' Headmistress : Headmistress Mcgonagall. She wanted to discuss with her about suitable arrangements for her son at his school amongst other things.

So there the Malfoys and Hogwart's new Head were together in her oval room, where Headmaster Dumbledore used to be :

"You should know this about our son.", began Narcissa.

"Yes, what is it? I'm waiting for you to speak about your matter. I think there's something you need to tell me, isn't there?"

"Yes indeed, well, it's like this…"

"Just go on with it, Mother." urged Draco.

"I can't do this, Lucius, Son." Thereafter Lucius helped her :

"Our son is a Merman and got a mate. We don't know who he or she might."

"Your son is a Merman and he's got a Mate and you haven't the faintest idea of who he or she might be?"

"No, unfortunately, we don't."

"Might I ask, what are the Signs to know who he or she is your son's Mate?"

"Having a particular scent to him and Draco will find that person especially attractive and will get jealous at anyone in close proximity to him or her."

"So these are the signs to identify his Mate. What else can I do for you, Mrs. and Mr. Malfoy?"

"Well, we'd like our son to have a private bath in his dormitory's bed so he could bathe at his convenience, and because Merpeople need a lot of water to survive, especially if with a fish tail."

"Did he grow one already? Also, he wouldn't need a private bath because he'll be a Prefect this year still and they got access to their own private bath."

"Yes, he already did and we're relieved to hear that he'll be resuming his Prefect duties this year the same as before." That was Narcissa chiming in after awhile of being silent.

"Oh Merlin, a Merman in our midst! I'll see what I can do for him to make the best for him at my school, you needn't worry about his need of water, Mr and Mrs. Malfoy."

"Thank you for your understanding, Headmistress." said all 3 in unison.

Hogwarts' Express, September 1st, 1998.

"Oh Merlin, we're going to be late, Mother, Father!"

"Well, if you didn't need a full bath earlier, we wouldn't have been late today to your first day of back to Hogwarts!"

"Well, sorry, if I'm a Merman!"

"Don't yell it so loudly, do you want everyone else to know?"

"No."

"Then be silent for a moment. Get your trunk and owl. Here are your first sweets."

"Oh, thank you, Mother. I'm smelling Granger."

"What do you mean, _**smelling**_ Granger?"

"I'm _**smelling** _her. Remember when you talked to Mcgonagall about my Signs? Well, that's the first one, isn't it, my Mate's smell?"

"What are you _**smelling**_ about her?"

"Of roses and lavender, and a very faint hint of vanilla. Smelling so good."

Draco was already walking towards her, unaware of the crowd staring at him. His Father yelled at him for him to hear him :

"Draco, where do you think you're going?"

Numbly, Draco was closing the distance between Hermione Granger and him. His Mate, it was all that he was thinking. "_I must go to my Mate_." Was all he could think of at the present. His parents pulled him back with brute force as he was walking blindly towards Her.

"Draco, get back, and find another compartment, go with Crabe and Goyle as usual!"

"But, I can't, I have to go to her!"

"Well, you can't right now because She doesn't know anything about you being a Merman and She being your Mate."

"Ok, yes, you're right, of course, Father." Since Draco was further from her, he couldn't smell that strongly Her intoxicating scent, and therefore he could calm himself down and rationalize the whole thing.

"But how do I tell her? She hates my guts and I've bullied Her for bloody 7 years straight."

"Not now, we'll write to discuss this matter together, but for now, Draco, get on your train, it's leaving now."

"Thank you, Mother, Father, for caring about me."

Meanwhile, on the Hogwarts' Express, he was figuring out how to tell Hermione Granger, the Muggle-born witch he picked on for a very long time that he was a Merman and that the Fates picked Her to be his Mate.

"Merlin, it's going to be a fun ride this year." He was sarcastically muttering to himself.


	3. Second Sign

The ride to Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was an uneventful one, because he was sitting with his usually stupid "friend": Goyle. Hence why there wasn't much conversation going on, because none of the 2 wanted to talk to each other. So the ride on the Hogwart's Express was a silent one as well. At last, he got to see Hogwart's lake and grounds.

"First years, first years, over here!" Was shouting Hagrid in his loud voice. He was remembering about his first year across Hogwarts' lake. He was watching the first years row and thinking it was particularly pleasant, until he got out of his compartment and spotted his Mate. He was smelling that same scent of lavender, roses and a hint of vanilla again. So deeply intoxicating to his nostrils. He could smell Her from where he was.

He wanted to go to her, until Goyle grabbed his arm and jerked him from his own thoughts :

"Draco, what are you doing? Walking towards that Mudblood?"

"Goyle, I'll have something to tell the whole Slytherin house after the school's sorting ceremony and feast, but don't you dare call Her that in my presence. Do you hear me?"

"Mate, what's the matter with you?" his "friend"asked idiotically.

"I'll tell you everything after. Do I need to repeat myself?" He asked him in his usual ordering voice. They knew they got to stop with his tone of voice.

"No." Both of his travelling companions agreed.

After all the first years rowed into Hogwarts, it was time for all the other years to get into the great Hall to enjoy the sorting ceremony, and thereafter, the grand opening feast every first day of school.

The Sorting Hat started off with it's usual song :

"Oh Hogwarts, Hogwarts…"

Draco was dozing off while it was singing it and sorting out the first years. But all of a sudden, he saw his Mate walking towards the great hall's front. "_Why_?" He was asking himself. Except he didn't care, all he could do was to stare at Her most graceful walking and most perfectly gorgeous body. "_Get a grip of yourself and think about why she's going towards the front of the hall_." He was mentally chastising himself.

Suddenly, he understood why. The Headmistress was announcing who the Prefects were, and his Mate was of course, Gryffindor's. And he Slytherin's, although he wasn't paying much attention to Mcgonagall's voice from afar until she said his name :

"Draco Malfoy, Slytherin's Prefect!"

He was smiling to himself when She congratulated him on his Prefect position with her. And he was indeed very happy about the developments. "_Thank you, Headmistress, for providing an extra opportunity for us to interact civilly._" He was silently thanking his Headmistress.

Then, it was the grand Feast of Hogwarts' first day of school. And per usual, there was a lot of rare dishes that the Elves home cooked for them. The food was all so delicious, but he wasn't tasting any of it, he was looking at Her, the Her being Hermione Granger, also his Mate.

**Slytherin Common Room, evening**

In the evening, around his friends, he was so full of those delicious dishes, however, all he could think of was how beautiful She looked when She walked in front of him. Pansy Parkinson was first to break their long silence :

"Well, I know all about your Granger problem, Draco. Your Mother wrote to me about it."

"Really, did she now? What did she tell you exactly?" He asked carefully, his mind hard at work. He wanted to pry her secret open.

"She told me everything about you. That you're a Merman and that you've got a Mate and that on the Hogwart's Express, you've identified Granger as your Mate."

"Yes, that's absolutely correct, isn't she just beautiful?"

"Draco, would please you focus? How are you planning precisely to tell her this? She doesn't exactly like you, you know."

"Do you gotta rub it in?"

"No, but I'm trying to help you, my friend." She continued, completely oblivious to his annoyance at her disturbing his peace.

"And what makes you think I need your help?" He hotly retorted.

"You'll need all the help you can get."

"Yes, I appreciate that Pansy, but I don't think your help is any necessary currently."

"What's that I'm hearing, Draco, you're a Merman and Granger's your Mate?" After the war, everybody got on last name basis, since the words "Mudblood", "Bloodtraitors" and etc got banned by the Ministry of Magic. Goyle was the only one stupid enough to use them. Plus, nobody cared much about this blood purity business any longer.

"Yes, unfortunately. So, how do I tell someone who hates me that she's supposed to be the love of my life and that my life depends on Her?"

"No idea right now, but we'll come up with something eventually." answered Nott again.

"Yes we will." agreed Parkinson with Nott.

On his first night at school, he went to sleep his heart heavywith apprehension with a very grim future ahead for him.


	4. Third Sign

A few days after his first day back to school, he was in one of his advanced potions classes with Hermione Granger, his only love. He noticed that the Headmistress made their classes coincide more, for which he was grateful for. He thought he could use that to get closer to her. But for now, he was in his potions' class with Professor Slughorn.

"Now, who can tell me some of the forbidden and illegal potions to make?"

"Amortentia". answered his Mate as soon as the professor asked the question.

"Right on, Miss Granger, 10 points for Gryffindor."

As other students were naming other forbidden and illegal potions in the wizarding world, he was taking note of Ronald Weasley's bizarre behaviour with his Mate. He was complimenting her on how brilliant her answer was to the Professor's.

He then felt a twinge of jealousy surge in his heart because She blushed. She, Hermione Jane Granger, actually blushed at Ronald Weasley's compliment. He wished he were the one to make her cheeks go red, that she'd blush at his comments about Her intelligence, because she was the most intelligent witch in perhaps the whole school in his eyes.

And so he was jealous. Ronald Weasley was by now all over Her, and his heart was pulsating faster until he had to get to the Weasel. "Weasel, how dare he!" He thought as he was touching her hand. His jealousy intensified. He wanted to go to Weasley and tackle him, though just then, Parkinson abruptly interrupted the class and said :

"Would you excuse us, Professor Slughorn, your class is very interesting, but we need to go the bathroom."

"Permission granted, but be quick or you'll miss the most interesting part of my class." Their potions Professor told them.

"Thank you."

Which after, Parkinson grabbed his arm and led him to the girls' bathroom.

"What were you thinking?"

"I don't know, I just felt very jealous that the Weasel was touching my Mate. Mine, nobody else's."

"It's not time to play that sort of things, and by the way, did you know they're in a relationship?"

"What? My Hermione and that Weasel, together?"

"Yes, your Mate is dating Weasley." Draco frowned at her more polite way of calling him. Immediately after seeing his reaction to her calling Weasley by his family name, she corrected herself : "Fine, Weasel."

"So, She's already taken? How come I didn't know that?"  
"Well, you weren't interested in her in the first place, plus you were too busy calling Her a you-know-what."

"Yes I know, I gotta make amends to Her for Her to see me in a new light."

"But first, we gotta find someone else for him because otherwise you'd never get Granger."  
"Ok, but how would he be interested in anyone else?"

"I got my tricks up my sleeve."

"Always the conniving Slytherin princess, aren't you, Pans?"

"Yes. And I'm trying to help you here. I haven't detailed out my plan yet, but I'v already got a vague idea of how I'm going to proceed."

"Thank you, Pans, you're the greatest."

"Meanwhile, don't fight Weasley and don't act rashly, because it'll cost you her first good impression of you before you even tell her about your predicament."

"Thank you, Pans, really appreciate it. So, mind telling me your vague idea of how to get Weasel interested in another girl than my Mate?"

"Well, I know Lavender Brown's interested in him, so we could use her as a bait."

"Great idea. I think we should get back to class, we've been talking in the girls' bathroom for about 10 minutes already."

"All right, but promise me you won't do anything rash to Weasley."

"No, I won't. Let's go back to class for now."

For the reminder of the potions' class, he was immersed into glaring at Weasley, who was the whole time very close to her, which made his jealousy intensify even more. He now felt 10 times more jealous than the beginning of his class. If this continued any longer, despite his promise to his friend to not act rashly with Weasley, Pansy Parkinson, he might do something rash to the Weasel. In his mind, he always called him that.

After potions' class, he felt his legs sting. He had to go to the Prefect's private bathroom and quickly. He charmed his footsteps so he could run faster to his destination : the Prefect's bathroom.

There, he went at once in the bathtub, filling the whole bathtub, and as soon as he dipped one of his toes in the water, he grew a golden fish tail like he did at home. He knew then that every time he felt jealous about Her, he'd grow a fish tail. He merely hoped that he'd have time enough to get to the Prefects' bathroom, his now privileged destination.

After he grew a fish tail, he felt immediately better, less jealous. He understood by then that it was his body way to signal that he was jealous.

"Merlin, if every time Weasel touches my Hermione, I'm going to grow a fish tail, it's going to be a never-ending nightmare for me! And Granger'd find out soon enough about me being a Merman on her own." He was thinking out loud to himself.

"And Merlin, I'm stinging and hurting like hell. Why do I have to go through this?" He asked without getting an answer from anyone.

He felt so alone in this. Luckily, he got Pans to help him out in this and he vowed to be more civil to her in his future Prefects' duties with her.


	5. Fourth Sign

After his latest growing a fish tail, and thank Merlin he got enough to get to the Prefects' bathroom, he stumbled across his Mate and the Weasel cuddling in a private corner from the corner of his eyes. He was watching them from his hiding spot.

His eyes were bulging with jealousy, as if they were going to get out from their sockets for now and all he was seeing was red. "I gotta get to MY Mate." Was all he could think of in his mind. So he walked towards them, wand out to get the Weasel, when Pans stopped him and abruptly waked him up from his trance while whispering to him for the couple not to hear them :

"I told you to not do anything rash at all to Weasley. You're breaking your promise to me."

"Not my fault he's all over MY Hermione."

"She doesn't know she's yours yet and it'd cost you Her seeing you in a new light if you did anything to her precious Weasley."

"So, what should I do about my feelings for Her? Nothing, just stand there and watch Her with him?"

"Why were you watching them if you can't stand the sight of them together in the first place?"

"I didn't want to watch them, I just stumbled on them by accident."

"Yeah, right, I bet you couldn't resist following Granger around?"

"I swear to Merlin, I didn't do that."

"All right, I believe you."

"And anyway, what about Lavender Brown and getting the Weasel interested in her?"

"We'll go talk to her in a minute. And could you lower your tone and be more polite to Weasley, please?"

"He'd always be 'The Weasel' to me. You're asking the impossible from me."

"For your Mate's sake."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I meant that if you were more polite to her actual boyfriend, it might actually get you into her good graces, if you're getting my drift."

"What? I gotta be nice to the Weasel, my rival?"

"Yes, because he's your Mate's boyfriend. And by being nicer to him, she might eventually think you're not so bad."

"I can't do it, Pans, he's already all over MY Mate, and I can't stand it every time I stumble across them accidentally together, shagging in a private corner. I wish it were me doing that to MY Hermione, not him." Draco's voice went up several octaves.

"Draco, let's just get away from there, we obviously can't stay there any longer. Let's go talk to Lavender Brown."

But too late, already, Ron was walking towards them upon hearing Draco Loud's voice.

"Oi, Malfoy, what are you doing, here, spying on us?"

"Nothing, just passing by." Said Draco as calmly as he could.

Seeing that Ron was about to point his wand at Draco, Hermione told him :

"Stop it, Ron, love, he's not worth your time nor mine." At this, Draco felt crushed. So he wasn't worth her time. He voiced these thoughts to his friend after his Hermione and Weasley had gone :

"So I'm not worthy of her?"

"For now, because you've mocked her for a very long time, it's not going to be easy to thaw that enmity between you two out. I'd suggest you to act civilly to Her in your next Prefect's duties with Her in a few nights."

"Yes, that's what I was thinking too. I didn't need you to point that out to me." He said dryly to her.

"Now, let's just get to Lavender Brown's. Pansy said as she led Draco away by his arm.

On their way to see Lavender Brown, Draco asked Parkinson, the cunning Slytherin girl, also his childhood friend :

"How are we getting the Brown girl to agree to our plans to break Weasel and MY Hermione up?"

"We'll get no problems on that front. She's agree all right. She's all jealous over the fact that your Granger and Weasley are together."

"But how are we going to approach her? Just blurt out the fact that I'm a Merman, and Hermione's MY Mate?" He was emphasizing strongly on the "my" when he said to his friend.

"Of course not, we're going to tell her that you've always had a crush on Granger, and we could use her help to and she'd get what she wants all along : Ronald Weasley."

"Except that I bullied MY Hermione and called her that for 7 long years prior to my finding out that she's MY Mate and that I'm a Merman. She'd not believe a word from you."

"Well, you might be surprised at how much she wants Weasley, Draco, and we're just going to tell her that you were bullying Her because you liked Her, although you were forced to hide your feelings from everyone because of your Father's allegiance to the Dark Lord." The Her in capital H was his Mate, of course.

"Sure, that sounds like a good plan."

Which after, they went to meet up with Lavender Brown in one of the Gryffindor corridors from the Gryffindor common room. And Lavender Brown got quite surprised to see them both there, so asked them, abashed :

"What are you 2 doing here, in a Gryffindor hallway, Parkinson and Malfoy?" She asked, taken aback by their sudden appearance.

"Well, we wanted to talk to you about something. A secret?" Pansy first started off with.

"A secret? And what's it got to do with me?" She asked Pansy again, intrigued.

"Well, it's like this, our Draco, our Slytherin Prince, always got a crush on your Gryffindor Princess."

"You mean Hermione Granger? Impossible. He was always calling her a you-know-what before, so how could he have liked her for that long?" As she asked her question, her eyes were out of their sockets by now.

"Everything's possible, Brown. Draco's been hiding it for so long, so would you help us get Her for my best childhood friend?"

"And why would I help two people whom I barely know? What do I get out of it?"

"Well, you'll get your crush, Ronald Weasley."

"How did you know?"

"You were a tiny wee bit too obviously jealous of Granger when these 2 got together."  
"Really, I showed that much?"

"Yes You were basically wanting to claw Granger's eyes out." This time it was Draco.

"Yes, I'll have to admit, I've loved Ronald Weasley since a very long time."

"Yes, 7 years." said Draco precisely in answer to Brown's self-lamenting."

"But the question is, will you help us get break Granger and Weasley apart?"

"Yes, except how will I do it?"

"You're just going to show some extreme interest in Weasley and leave the rest to us."

"I understand my part, so I will get my Weasley, you promise it's not a shame?"  
"No it's not, my feelings for Hermione are the truest, Brown."

"So it's Hermione now, isn't it, Malfoy?" She teased him.

"Yes, although in front of everyone else, I still call her Granger."

"I understand how much you want her and if you've really wanted her for as long as I wanted Weasley, I'll help you guys as much as I can, but I can't promise that he'll fall for me."

"No worries about that, we'll take care of it. Thank you for your help, Brown." said Draco gratefully.

After Pansy and Draco got alone, she said to her best friend since childhood :

"Well, that didn't go too bad, now, did it?"

"No, indeed, it didn't. We'll see how she does her part."

"And I'll do my part which is making sure Weasley falls for the Brown girl."

"You got any plans?"  
"Yes, I've got it all schemed out."

"Mind telling me how you're going to proceed?"

"Shh, it's a surprise, Draco."

"I hate your surprises. Yours have always been nasty."

"You'll like this one, I promise and it won't a nasty one."

"Thanks, Pans."

That night, Draco went to bed in his own large Prefect dormitory, with a heavy weight off his shoulders now that Lavender Brown agreed to help them out, despite being strangers for the most part. He wasn't aware that she was so desperately in love with Weasley, that she'd agree so easily and readily to Pans' evil and conniving plans.


	6. She knows!

But before Lavender Brown could do anything about the Weasel, he got a Prefect's night patrol with his Hermione. He loved every bit of it. The time alone with her, it was precious to him. He wasn't being as nasty as before to Her. He was being nicer to Her than usual, or so he thought.  
Although he had to refrain himself from calling Her Hermione in front of Her.

"So Granger, how are we going to go on about this patrolling business?"

"What do you mean by 'we'?" Sadly, he sensed venom and spite in Her voice, despite him trying his hardest to be civil to Her.

"We, as a team, should work together since we're both House Prefects, shouldn't we?"

"What's gotten into you, all of a sudden, Malfoy?"

"Nothing, I just thought we might try to be civil to each other, since we are working together, no."

"First things first, there's no 'we', between us and second, there's never going to be a 'we'." His hopes got dashed at that.

"Well, if you're going to take it like that, then, we should go back to insulting each other?"

"No I mean, you've gotten over the calling me 'Mudblood', thing, yes?"

"Yes, and I thought you were the most brilliant of our year."

"Well, I just'd like to know why, that's all."

"Because I've figured, since we're going to work together, I'd better be civil to you, hence my calling you by your family name."

"Thanks, Malfoy, for making it easier for both of us. I thought this was going to be unpleasant, but you've matured."

He interiorly blushed at Her compliment. Getting a compliment from Her was very rare, since she'd never praise someone she considered an enemy.

"So, we're friends?"

"I guess."

Just then, his legs were burning like on fire. He got a sudden stinging sensation in his legs again. "_Oh no, not now, Merlin help me!_" He thought. Perchance, Headmistress Mcgonagall was there and whisked him away from his Prefects duties before he grew a fish tail again.

Away from his Hermione, Mcgonagall asked him :

"Have you thought about how to tell Her about your situation?"

"I don't know yet, Headmistress, would you please help me?"

"As She said, you've definitely grown some manners. Yes, I will help you tell her. I'll tell Her to get in my office right now."

"We're going to tell Her now?" He screeched.

"Yes, and for Merlin's sake, you're screeching like a girl."

"I'm sorry, Headmistress. So, how exactly are you planning to tell her?"

"I've something in mind already, don't you worry about that part. Meanwhile, get yourself in the Prefect's bathroom while I'm going to get Her in my office. Get in my office after you're done with your bath."

"All, right, I'll be waiting for you."

In the Prefect's bathroom, he filled a whole bathtub, and began bathing. As soon as he touched water, his tail grew back into legs and he felt so much more soothed.

"Oh Merlin, water feels good to me. I never knew water could feel so good. Thank Merlin Mcgonagall made me a Prefect. But I couldn't resist transforming when I'm so near Her, because she's so beautiful and attractive, I want to touch her, to feel her skin on mine." He was musing out loud to himself.

A while later, he was in Mcgonagall's oval office with an astonished Hermione Granger. Wow, the state his Mate was in was barely Her. It was obvious that she didn't understand what was going on.

"Headmistress, I was summoned tonight in your office, for what purpose, please?"

"To tell you something of importance, Miss Granger."

"What?" She said simply.

"Mr. Malfoy is a Merman and you're his Mate."

"What? That's impossible!"

"Miss Granger, you almost saw him transform tonight, and you're still not believing what I'm telling you?"

"But, but, but… Malfoys are famous for being Pure-Bloods."

"Well, it turned out that my parents found this out on my birthday." This was Draco.

"And me, a non-Pure-Blood, his Mate?"

"Even though you may not be a Pure-Blood, you're still my match in everything else : intelligence, grace, beauty."

"I can't believe this. Besides, I'm with Ronald Weasley! He's the love of my life, you can't be the one i gotta spend the rest of my life with!" He read rejection, repulsion and so much more in Her tone of voice.

"Hermione, please, you gotta believe us. I almost morphed into a Merman before your eyes, and you're still not believing the facts?"

"No, and besides our patrolling duties, I don't want anything to do with you, Malfoy. And it's Granger to you. She spat his name out.

"Miss Granger, would you please hear me out…" Was tentatively trying their Headmistress as she was storming out of the oval room.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Malfoy, that was the best I could do…"

"That wasn't your fault, Headmistress, you can't make Her believe it! And even if I were nicer to her, she's never going to fall for me."

"There's a Muggle saying, Mr. Malfoy and that's : 'Never say never.'"

"But it seems like that to me." He said so desperately.

"It might seem like that, but the stars are saying you two belong together. She'll come around, She will."

"But how?" He still asked stubbornly."  
"You can't divine out the future, She'll think it through and think that you're not so bad after all." Mcgonagall was encouraging her disparaged student.

"No more of this please, I know it's not going to work out." Replied he, all hopes dashed.

_**In the Slytherin Common Room with his friends**_

"So, tonight you almost transformed in front of your Mate and she didn't believe you when you told that you're a Merman and She's your Mate?"

"That about sums it up yes."

"You know that if she keeps rejecting you, you'll die."

"Geez, thanks for being so encouraging, Nott." Said he, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"No problem, anyways, I hope She'll come around for you, Mate." said Nott again, this time more encouragingly.

"Thanks for cheering me up. I'm going to take a walk around the lake to clear up my mind, good night."

That night, after his disastrous telling his Mate about his predicament, and She disbelieving him, he went around Hogwart's lake for a walk. He was thinking that dying for his love might not be so bad. But what he didn't know, was that if she didn't believe him soon, they'd both not survive it. So they both got to be with each other, or else, none of them would survive.

"Why are the Fates so cruel to me? Choosing for me a Mate who hates my guts?" Was shouting Draco to the moonlit and starred night sky.


End file.
